There are various types of tire noises generated during the running of a pneumatic tire. As one of the tire noises, there is cavity resonance sound generated due to the vibration of the air filled in the tire. Heretofore, as a method for effectively reducing the cavity resonance sound, there has been proposed one as shown in FIG. 5, in which a noise absorbing member 5 of a porous material such as a polyurethane foam is disposed on the inner peripheral surface of the tire on the inner side of a tread portion 1, so that the cavity resonance sound is absorbed by the noise absorbing member 5 (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2).
When removing such a pneumatic tire T, in which the noise absorbing member 5 is attached, from a rim R for the purpose of tire rotation or the like, after the pneumatic tire T is mounted on the rim R, as shown in FIG. 6, a tip end of a lever X of a tire changer is sometimes pressed strongly against a surface of the noise absorbing member 5. However, since the porous material composing the noise absorbing member is generally soft and low in tear strength, there is a problem that the noise absorbing member is likely to be damaged when the lever of the tire changer is pressed against the surface of the noise absorbing member as described above. Specifically, a pneumatic tire of which the aspect ratio is smaller and the section height is lower has a tendency that the noise absorbing member is more likely to be damaged. Once damage occurs as described above on the noise absorbing member of the low noise tire, a stress that is based on deformation of the pneumatic tire during the running thereof is concentrated to the damaged spot. Accordingly, the noise absorbing member is gradually removed from the inner peripheral surface of the tire, which leads to a problem that desired noise absorbing performance cannot be obtained.    Patent Document 1: Japanese patent application Kokai publication No. Sho62-216803    Patent Document 2: Japanese patent application Kokai publication No. 2003-63208